Benefits of Therapeutic Massage
Relaxation
Physically, the pace of massage, in time with your slower and deeper breathing, frees you from fight-or-flight mode, allowing your parasympathetic nervous system to attend to your body's maintenance needs. Psychologically, massage puts a "snow globe" around you, shielding you from whatever may have been troubling you before the massage. The effect is like a good vacation, which does not end when you get off the table. Usually, the next 3 or 4 nights after a massage, you sleep more deeply.
Improved muscle vitality
Long-term, the stresses that cause us to misuse our muscles - slouching, repeating movements over and over, unconscious clenching - cause degradation in our muscles and skeleton. By breaking up fascial adhesions, and stimulating the flow of nutrients-in / wastes-out through blocked areas, massage improves overall muscle health. Since muscles are our power plants, more efficiency here means more efficiency throughout the body.
Body awareness
You will become more aware of tense and rigid areas, reduced range of motion and holding patterns. I will provide you with exercises you can do at home to improve your posture, comfort and overall function. You will begin to recognize muscular tension when you feel it and nip new bad body use habits in the bud.
Healing
In times of stress, adrenaline overload postpones the body's healing processes. The massage benefits mentioned above - improved awareness, vitality, relaxation - all help prevent adrenaline overload from doing irreversible damage.
